The present invention relates generally to computing networks and relates more particularly to the propagation of spam (e.g., unsolicited or spoofed data) over peer-to-peer data transfer networks.
FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a network 100 of nodes (e.g., computing devices) interacting in a peer-to-peer (P2P) manner. Generally, a requesting node 101 sends a search message 105 (e.g., containing keywords relating to data that the requesting node 101 wishes to locate) to at least one intermediate node 111 in communication with the requesting node 101 via a peer connection. The intermediate node 111 receives the search message 105 and forwards the search message 105 to at least one additional node 111. Eventually, the search message 105 reaches at least one responding node 103 having the requested data (in some cases, the first intermediate node 111 to which the search message 105 is forwarded will also be a responding node 103). At least one responding node 103 then sends a response message 107 back to the requesting node 101, e.g., via the intermediate nodes 111. The requesting node 101 then requests the relevant data from a responding node 103 by connecting directly to the responding node 103, e.g., via direct connection 109.
In conventional P2P systems, it has become common for some responding nodes 103 to disguise “spam” content (e.g., unsolicited or spoofed data, such as advertisements) inside of transferred files. Some responding nodes may even send spam content in response to substantially any search message that is received, regardless of the keywords included in the search message. For example, in response to a search request message 105 including the search terms “Joe's poetry”, a responding node 103 may indicate that it has a file labeled “Joes_poetry.mp3” or “JoesPoetry.wmv”. However, instead of containing content related to Joe's poetry, the file in fact contains an advertisement for a product completely unrelated to Joe or poetry. If the user at the requesting node does not immediately check the content of the transferred file, he or she may be unaware that the transferred file contains spam and may unknowingly share the spam content with other users on the P2P network.
Thus, there is a need in the art for a method and apparatus for reducing spam on a P2P network.